The
way Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported on Haiti and Venezuela in its
2008 World Report reveals an underlying assumption that the US and
its allies have the right to overthrow democratic governments.[1]

It is a
matter of public record that the US funded groups who were involved
in the coup of 2002 and continued to do so after the coup took place,
but rather than denounce or even acknowledge US destabilization efforts
in Venezuela, HRW continues to complain about the non-renewal of RCTV's
public broadcasting license. [2] RCTV was one of big television networks
that aided and abetted the coup. HRW objects that RCTV's involvement
in the coup "was not proven in a proceeding in which RCTV had
an opportunity to present a defense." It is impossible to imagine
a non-farcical proceeding that would conclude otherwise, especially
when the coup's perpetrators thanked the private media, of which RCTV
was a major part, for its help. Before the coup was reversed Vice-Admiral
Ramirez Perez told a Venezuelan reporter:

"We
had a deadly weapon: the media. And now that I have the opportunity,
let me congratulate you."

Judging
by its reports, HRW is completely uninterested in whether the broadcaster
that replaced RCTV on the public airwaves, TVes, offers viewers a
wider variety of views. [3]"Freedom of the Press Barons"
to perpetrate coups appears to be HRW's concern, not freedom of expression.
It is worth remembering that HRW's response to the coup in Venezuela
was appalling. Al Giordano summed their response up well in an exchange
with an HRW intern:

"They
recognized an illegitimate 'authority' as legitimate. They failed
to call for the removal of that dictatorial regime. They failed to
call on other nations and the OAS to refuse to recognize it. They
failed to call for invoking the OAS Democratic Charter for the one
event it was intended to prevent."[4]

Giordano's
words could also be used to summarize how HRW responded to the US
backed coup in Haiti in 2004.

HRW used
the 2008 World Report to criticize, yet again, a judicial reform law
that was passed by the Chavez administration in 2004. In contrast,
HRW's summary about Haiti said nothing about the coup that ousted
Jean Bertrand Aristide's democratic government in 2004; nothing about
the subsequent murder of thousands of people who supported Aristide's
Lavalas movement (the word "Lavalas" does not even appear
in the summary); nothing about the fact that Haiti's police and judiciary
remain stacked with appointees from the dictatorship of 2004-2006;
nothing about Father Gerard Jean Juste, the most prominent political
prisoner of that period, who continues to be hounded by Haiti's legal
system. [5]

Even if
HRW's criticism of Venezuela's judicial reform law of 2004 were reasonable
(and it isn't) it cannot deserve more attention than the coup in Haiti
that led to a human rights catastrophe. [6]

On a positive
note, the 2008 World Report belatedly gave some attention to the disappearance
of Lovinsky Pierre Antoine, a prominent Haitian human rights worker
and opponent of the 2004 coup. HRW stated:

"In
August 2007 a well known human rights advocate, Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine,
was abducted. At this writing his whereabouts remain unknown."

Again,
the absence of the word "Lavalas" is telling. Pierre-Antoine
disappeared days after he had announced that he would run for the
Haitian senate as a Fanmi Lavalas Party candidate. The goal of the
2004 coup and the bloodbath that followed was to eliminate the Lavalas
movement - the same goal with basically the same perpetrators as during
the 1991-1994 period about which HRW reported extensively. [7]

At first
glance, the 2008 World Report seems to provide courageous and much
needed criticism of powerful countries like the US. HRW is willing
to contradict the Bush Administration on some important matters. For
example, in a press conference about the 2008 World Report, HRW director
Ken Roth refused to label Venezuela as a "closed country".
However, Roth went on to say that human rights "trends were negative
in Venezuela". That conclusion is justified only if one assumes
that perpetrating coups and other acts of sabotage against a democratic
government should have no legal repercussions at all. Meanwhile, in
Haiti, when human rights trends really were disastrously negative
thanks to a coup backed by the US and its allies, HRW displayed a
chilling indifference.[8]

An important
lesson to learn from the coups that took place in Haiti and Venezuela
is that US imperialism cannot succeed through the efforts of Neocons
alone. It needs the help of other countries, and it needs the help
of NGOs like Human Rights Watch. [9]

[2] See
Eva Gollinger's "The Chavez Code" for details on US funding
of groups that participated in the coup.

[3] There
is good reason to believe that freedom of expression on the public
airwaves has been improved by replacing RCTV with TVES James Jordan
notes "The new broadcasting license is being given to a public
station, TVes-Venezuela Social Television, which will run shows produced
mainly by independent parties. The station will be controlled not
by the government, but by a foundation of community members, with
one chair reserved for a government representative. " http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/2416
For more specifics about RCTV's involvement in the coup see http://www.globalexchange.org/countries
/americas/venezuela/2974.html

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